Earth Hour 2011: It's time to go beyond the hour

Friday, May 15, 2009

Disa as a Source of Inspiration - Wikipedia

Disa is the heroine of a Swedish legendary saga, which was documented by Olaus Magnus, in 1555. It is believed to be from the Middle Ages, but includes Old Norse themes.

In time the when the god-king Freyr (or king Sigtrud) ruled in Sweden, there was a famine. The long peace during Freyr's reign had greatly increased Sweden's population until the lands could no longer support it sufficiently.

The king and the chieftains decided that the population had to be culled by killing all the elderly, sickly and handicapped, and by sacrificing them to Odin. However, Disa, the daughter of the chieftain Sigsten of Venngarn in Uppland, was upset by this cruel solution. She talked mockingly to the king and chieftains about their wisdom and claimed to have wiser words of advice.

In order to test her wits, Freyr asked her to visit him, but she could not do so by foot, by horse, in a wagon, nor in a boat. She could not visit him either dressed or undressed. The time must not be within a year nor within a month, and neither during daytime nor nighttime, and neither when the moon was waxing nor waning.

She passed the test by harnessing two young men to a sled. By the sled, she had a billygoat and she had one leg over the goat and the other leg in the sled. For clothes she had a net, and she arrived at dusk to the king the third day before Yule, a day which was not counted to the year but was considered to be an additional day between two years.

The democide was cancelled, and according to the behest of the new queen Disa, there was a drawing of lots so that a part of the population was to leave Sweden (then restricted to Svealand), for the northern regions that were later called Norrland, where they were to settle and cultivate the land.

Disa's wisdom was so highly valued that many disputes were relegated to her at the Midwinter blót at the Temple at Uppsala, which from this time was called the Disablot and the Disting.